Florida in his future?

Oladipo’s return to Pacers no certainty

We are about to find out whether a bubble can stifle outside noise during the playoffs.

With the Miami Heat facing the Indiana Pacers in the first round of the postseason, it brings the Heat and Pacers guard Victor Oladipo face to face with the rumor mill.

It deals with Oladipo bypassing — or being bypassed for — an extension this offseason from the Pacers and eventually working his way to Miami, where he operates his training facility and spent much of his time at the start of this season rehabilitating a ruptured quad tendon.

Already, the conjecture has permeated Indiana’s locker room, amplified by interactions between Oladipo and Heat players at the teams’ Monday game.

“I mean, it’s just the media doing what the media does,” Pacers center Myles Turner said in an interview published this week by HoopsHype about the Oladipo-Heat link.

“They have to gaslight certain situations, and, you know, I don’t think much of it because like you said it’s really a year out. Ultimately, it’s going to be up to him and the decision he wants to make, or the decision the front office wants to make.

“So until then all you can do is control what you can control and just hoop on the floor. I think if he continues to be himself, then he can kind of create his own destiny. So I don’t pay much attention to all that stuff.”

The Pacers this offseason can offer Oladipo, 29, an extension starting at $25 million a season. That would be significantly less than what he likely could have received in 2021 free agency pre-pandemic. Now with so much of the NBA’s salary math in flux, so is the Oladipo saga.

The last time the Pacers approached free agency from a distance with such a talent, they traded Paul George to the Oklahoma City Thunder in 2017 for Oladipo and Domantas Sabonis.

Oladipo initially elected to bypass the NBA restart before reversing course and putting together a few heartening moments in the Disney World quarantine setting, including a 22-point effort in a victory over the Los Angeles Lakers.

Like many of the leading men involved in the upcoming HeatPacers series, Oladipo was held out of Friday’s meeting between the teams at the Wide World of Sports complex that closed out the regular-season schedule.

All the while speculation continues about how his skill set might fit in with that of the Heat’s purported 2021 freeagent target, Giannis Antetokounmpo of the Milwaukee Bucks. Such a pairing assuredly would require a trade with the Pacers for the Heat.

So playoff foes first, trade partners later?

Oladipo’s play at Disney again has him considered as somewhat of a leading man as he resets his fit with the Pacers.

“I think he’s just more comfortable,” Pacers teammate Malcolm Brogdon said of Oladipo’s play in the past two weeks of seeding games. “It helps when you make shots; he’s been making shots and playing at a high level. That helps our confidence with him [and] it helps his confidence in us.” Brogdon said the fits works. “He has great teammates,” Brogden said. “These guys out here, they’re low ego, they’re humble, and it’s about making sure that it’s about him wanting to fit in. And that’s what he’s done. He’s come back with a low-maintenance, low-ego mindset, and that’s been huge for us. It’s been huge for him. So that’s why I think this process has been so much better.”

As for what comes next, Oladipo told CNBC that he’ll worry about that when his current work is finished.

“I’m just focused on doing what I can to help my team the best way I can,” he said. “One day it will all click again, and then I can worry about those other things when the time comes.”

Oladipo